Cirkeln (edition 2011)

Authors
Sara B. Elfgren started her career in the film industry as a screenwriter. As a script doctor, she has been involved in several Swedish film and TV-productions. The Circle is her debut novel. Mats Strandberg is an author and a journalist. He is a regular columnist for Sweden’s biggest evening newspaper Aftonbladet and 2004 the organization Sveriges Tidskrifter (Sweden’s Newspapers and Magazines) awarded him the title Columnist of the Year. Mats Strandberg has previously released three books, of which the third one, Half Lifes was awarded Book of the Year 2009 by QX.

Review
This review is going to be as hard to write as this book was to leave in the bookstore. I am not a paranormal YA reader. I try them sometimes when I see people cheer over a book and usually get annoyed very fast and put it down. When I first saw this book I was like oww pretty cover but it is paranormal YA so I am not even going to give it a try. Plus honestly I have not seen this book around the YA blogs I follow so if it is not on their radar it must be nothing... but it had such a pretty cover and the story could be good... and the cover..
Yeah you guess right. I put the book on my Christmas list in the end and finally came around to read it. My first reaction.. Hello pretty cover. My second reaction ... He! this was not an awful YA book where parents seem nonexistent and teenagers seem like wild drunken drugged sex monsters. Do not get me wrong, the teenagers in this book do have sex (though not really explicit), they drink and there is also drugs in the story but it is not a common factor. Plus they live with parents who do ask questions about their weird behavior and have normal parent child interactions. That was actually very pleasant.
The story itself is slow. There is a lot of tension implied but there is not really a big explosion. Still the tension makes that you want to continue reading. There is a lot of pain and loss and sad in this book and it is very well described making it easy to be pulled in the dark emotions that are running trough the story. The story is told from different point of views but this was not really disturbing. I actually felt that we missed a few and would have liked to know more about Ida and Linnéa.
The main group of characters could have been any six girls from any high school. Though they grew up together and know each other they are not the best friends and some even are enemies. They have to work on their differences to get trough the situations but it does not come natural. You get to see inside their head and their fears and doubts are honest and normal. This makes it very easy to connect with the girls. What I did feel sorry about was the fact the only guy left so soon. I think it could have been nice to have a guy in the group. Now it is six girls and though they are from various personality types they are girls.
The paranormal stuff did not really impress me though. I am not sure if it had to do with the way their powers developed or the way things where explained but it did not really have the magic feel some paranormal books can have. ( )

You all know the story: A girl finds out she's special because she has a connection to angels/vampires/ mermaids/ Ghostbusters. Then it turns out she's more special than anyone else and the fate of the world is on her shoulders alone. And like that wasn't enough, she also falls in love with a boy she can't be with because he's her mortal enemy/ her guardian/ her brother/ just too sexy for her.

Well, this is NOT that kind of book. It's all much more complicated than that. Instead of one heroine Extra Special, we get six very ordinary ones. They're supposed to save the world with their powers, but first they have to get along. That's quite a challenge when the group includes a bully and her victim and one of the girls dates another one's ex. These girls are troubled (by all kinds of issues, not just boys) and it shows in how they act. They're far from perfect and that makes them extremely believable and relatable.

The story begins with a mysterious death that looks like a suicide. From then on anything can happen. Anyone can get hurt and anyone can die. The authors don't promise their readers safety, but they will give you a hell of a ride. Unfortunately the book is a beginning of another trilogy - I'd be happy to read a great YA fantasy standalone sometime. ( )

To those who call this "a Swedish Twilight" I want to say that this is like Twilight minus the vampires, mediocre language, weak plot, problematic love story and gorgeous broody guys. If you take away all that and instead add a very good plot, very good language and very convincing and engaging characters, then yeah, it's EXACTLY like Twilight! ( )

Part one of a forthcoming trilogy, which starts off with a spooky death and the introduction of a virtual barrage of characters. It's a little confusing, but once you've got everyone straight in your mind, this is one of the most captivating YA novels I've read. Six girls, all different - the outcast, the brain, the popular, the ugly, etc. - have to learn how to work together to defeat the evil power. Doesn't sound all that original, does it? It may have a standard premise and seemingly stereotypical characters, but it's certainly not a standard story. The two authors have managed to bring small-town Sweden (or anywhere, really) to life, along with a realistic depiction of teenage issues and feelings.

The supernatural part, which is the main story, often takes a back-seat to the mechanics of the various relationships and before you even know it, you have a personal stake in the well-being of these girls, even those you don't like. Thankfully, the characters never succumb to what I refer to as Sookie-Stackhouse-Syndrome - getting into trouble by acting stupid - and I am thankful to the authors for not taking the cheap way out; nobody dies unless the evil power is actually cleverer or stronger. I also appreciate that the girls don't suddenly bond and become bosom buddies once they realize that they will be needing each other's powers, but rather more realistically, the ones who don't like each other in the beginning still don't get along at the end. I am very much impressed with the writing, characterization, and plot and wish more than anything that the forthcoming installments don't let this one down. ( )

First of all: this book doesn’t really need my praise. Released just a few weeks ago here in Sweden, it seems to be spreading like wildfire. It’s topping several best seller lists, and the reviews are raving. For me, it was the whole front page of the culture section of our biggest daily that did it, where one of my favorite critics somewhat baffled called it “beautifully crafted” and “perfect circle”. I’ve already said it’s going to conquer the world, and after finishing I’m still convinced. This is a book you’ll all read. Or deliberately choose not to.

What is it then? Well, it’s a YA brick, first in a planned trilogy. About teenage witches on a mission to stop the apocalypse. Yeah, I know: Woo-bloody-hoo. But it’s also a pitch perfect novel about growing up in a small town where the future left decades ago, about the horrible social games of teenage life and about all kinds of…real stuff. And really, while nothing is perhaps truly original in this book – think Buffy meets Let the right one in meets Fucking Åmål, maybe – it’s just so cleverly balanced between it’s dirty realism and it’s occultism, it cannot be denied. At times, I even wish the authors would stop babbling about demons and just focus on the tension in the locker room. Which is, for me at least, not often the case with this type of literature. And of course, like in Buffy, what Strandberg and Elfgren are doing is also finding the effortless links between these two streams of the story – so that the magic and the horror and the secrets actually become mirrors of teenage life.

In drab, industrial Engelsfors (beautifully captured, for someone who’s grown up in a town like that) six girls from very different social stratas – both at home and in school – are brought to the deserted dance park under a blood red moon. They have nothing in common: the bully, the sporty girl with a secret eating disorder, the outcast, the victim, the white trash and the painfully average. They are not friends. But they are finding out they need to find a way to work together, or die.

People don’t just change here, other than by extremely small steps. And yes, the girls drink, smoke, have sex and are often extremely cruel to each other. This is not a pretty book, nor is it moral. But it rings true, witch circles or not. And of, course, it is virtually impossible to put down. ( )